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TOUR REPORT
OB SPORTS GOLF & LEISURE
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WINTER 2017
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obsports.com
The truth is that there's nobody
like Tiger in professional golf. There
never has been, never will be. Even
those fans who didn't swear alle-
giance to Tiger Woods were inex-
orably drawn to watching him play.
• • •
MOVING THE NEEDLE
Consider the broadcast ratings for
when Woods finally teed it up fol-
lowing 15 months away from tour-
nament golf. It was at his own Hero
World Challenge in The Bahamas, a
non-official, though PGA Tour-sanc-
tioned event that featured 17 play-
ers. On a Thursday in early
December, 2016, Golf Channel re-
ported a 190 percent increase in
viewership from the 2015 event
where Tiger was absent. It was the
most-watched first round of any
tournament since the British Open.
I'll acknowledge that there was
incredible pent-up demand from
golf fans just to see Tiger's come-
back after so many months away.
That would explain the first-round
viewership totals.
Once the novelty had worn off,
however, the numbers didn't dimin-
ish. People like watching 41-year-
old Tiger Woods play golf. Perhaps
the reason why was best expressed
at the Hero event by 23-year-old Jor-
dan Spieth: "Even with Tiger, every
time we set expectations, he exceeds
them."
• • •
THE LEGEND GROWS
Even before Tiger Woods' "Hello,
World" pronouncement in 1996 as
he turned professional, he had been
exceeding expectations.
Woods was a child prodigy, fa-
mously hitting putts with Bob Hope
on the Mike Douglas TV Show at
the age of 2. He dominated as a kid,
first breaking 80 at age 8, winning
six Junior World Championships
and then capturing three consecu-
tive U.S. Junior Championships, a
feat never before accomplished.
After that, he won three consecutive
U.S. Amateur Championships, all
featuring down-to-the-wire heroics.
In an early Masters appearance as
an amateur, Woods' play elicited a
comment from Jack Nicklaus that
"Tiger will win more Masters than
Arnold Palmer and I combined (10)."
OK, so Woods has only collected
four Green Jackets from Augusta. By
anyone's standards, however, he's
met and exceeded every legitimate
expectation.
He's won 79 PGA Tour titles, sec-
ond only to Sam Snead on the all-
time list. He's won 14 professional
major championships, second only
As fans we're transfixed by Tiger because we've seen him
accomplish the impossible so many times over the years.
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